Experimental tumbling of echinoderms - Taphonomic patterns and implications

Our data demonstrate that articulated ossicles can remain for several days, sufficient time for long (even a few hundred km) transportation. This finding illustrates that articulated echinoderm remains do not necessarily imply low energy and highlights the importance of a reliable discrimination of autochthonous and allochthonous components of fossil echinoderm assemblages. Application of, in particular, isolated fossil echinoderm ossicles in e.g. paleoenvironmental and paleoecological reconstructions may lead to serious misinterpretations and should be supplemented by observations of abrasion traces.